Eugenia Clementine Pina

A song made me think of my grandmother.

The song was Stranger On The Shore by Mister Acker Bilk. Don’t know it? Not to worry I couldn’t name you anything else he’s done. This was a sleepy sounding instrumental done by a guy in a bowler hat who played the clarinet. But. It was the biggest selling song in the UK in 1962 and it was played a bunch here in the US.

Tears stream fown my facebook as I tupe this up,  she was my 'mom' for all practucsl and intensive purposes,  she rsisex m de as her own on behalf of my biological mothers her daughter Jovina Silva. Jovina left Brava CV when I was 3. I didn' t see her again still I was 9-1/2 in Brooklyn NY.

I heard it the sing first coming out of the radio in her kitchen. I was seven.

My grandmother’s name was Eugenia. Eugenia Clementine Pina. In my whole life I’ve never met another Eugenia. I've meter another Jovina. I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess you haven’t either. Names were different back then, less Brittany and Aisha and more Mildred and Ethel.

We called her Nana in English and Avi or Vovo in our native tongue Kriolu and Portuguese.

My grandmother was born in Brava,  CV Africa. She was wonderful, magical, and I’ll bet yours was too. She was my mother’s mother and she left a deep imprint on me and my brother and sister.

Grandparents spoil their grandkids. They kiss and hug them, give them all the treats that mom and dad don't want you to have and are great babysitters.

Rent-a-kid.  The old joke is that they're so great at that because they get to go home and leave the runny noses and full diapers behind.

Mom and grandma in the ole country. 

Nana or Vovo was always a good cook but she was a great baker using a heart type stove and fireplace. We kids learned that if she was baking something you better get there early.

Eugenia Clementine lived in Rhode Island, after she retired,  mom still lived in New York; Boreum Hill Bklyn to be exact. I went to third grade there when my father, in the Army/ Air Force, went to Germany twice,  ahead of us. It was while living in her house that I learned to play handball, softball & stick ball in the streets,  how to collect glass soda bottles for the two cents,  later five cents you would get when you turned them in to be recycled.


How to tawk like a New Yorker which I later un-learned.

Vovo or Nana used to eat cereal,  oatmeal,  wheatena or faruna before she went to work but get this instead of milk in the bowl she had cream and irish coffee on the side. I’ve never met anyone who did that. When I was young and the tooth fairy came and exchanged my teeth for coins, there were some subway tokens mixed in with the loot. I thought it kinda strange but hey it was m-o-n-e-y and we could go anywhere in the city.

We got used to the way Vivo or Nana would say every sentence like it had an exclamation point at the end of it. We’ve been saying, “There were peas and rice! Or jagaseedah! ” forever, lovingly mimicking her.

 And yes it makes more sense to us than to you.

When she retired she came north to Rhode Island to live closer to us but she  from New York,  terribly. She had her own apartment and knowing that she missed home I got her a subscription to the Daily News, her favorite New York newspaper.

One day when I went to pick her up I noticed three or four papers that had been mailed to her on her buffet by the door. “Do you read them, Nana?” I asked. “Every one,” she replied. “ Do you know why?” she asked with a twinkle in her eye. “Because I like to talk and if you like to talk you have to know what you’re talking about.”

Truer words were never spoken.

When she died there was a funeral in New York,  and one in Rhode Island it was the first fam one I ever went to. Mom wouldn't let me Paul Bearer,  she git her goddon the celeberty to do it. Ihsd togoyi eofk thstdsy 1st day on the job and all. I hate funerals anyway.  We were all there; my mother, my father, sister and brother, aunts and uncles, family friends. It's odd what I remember from that day. They had an open casket and I didn't know what to do so I did what everyone else did. I went up, genuflected, and saw my grandmother for the last time. She left suddenly no chance to say good- bye. 

But here's the odd memory.

When I got back to the pew where my family was I told my mom what I had done and said, "You should go up and see her." She told me, "That's not my mother up there. It's just a body. Her soul is gone." I'd never heard that before.

Mom never went.

                                                       

Eugenia Clemintine Pina

My Grandmother 'My Mother' she reared me. 

   

She's not alone her son,  my Uncle is with her,  died circa,  Sept 2015 at 82 yo & mom 93... Shortly thereafter of cancer ( prostrate,  ovarian & breast respectively ) 

João J. Pina

September 9, 2015/

João  J. Pina, 82 of East Providence passed away Wednesday September 9, 2015 at the Philip Hulitar Inpatient Center.  He was the husband of Ana C. (Gomes) Pina  to whom he was married for 54 years.  Born in Brava, Cape Verde he was the son of the late José  Gualdino and Eugenia 'Clementina' (Gomes) DePina.He was a chef at the Brook Manor Pub in South Attleboro, previously he was a chef in Glen Cove,  New York at D’Place.  He was a member of the East Providence Senior Center, and a communicant of St. Francis Xavier Church and local lodge.In addition to his wife he is survived by two sons Joseph S. Pina of VA, John Pina of CA, one daughter Laura Eugenia Pina of VA, six grandchildren Anna, Josephine, Sean, Tyler, Cameryn, John Julian, and one sister Jovina Silva of Riverside.His funeral will be held on Saturday at 9 AM from the PERRY-MCSTAY FUNERAL HOME 2555 Pawtucket Avenue, East Providence with a Mass of Christian Burial at 10 AM in St. Francis Xavier Church, North Carpenter St., East Providence.  Burial will be in Gate of Heaven Cemetery, ( close to dad ) .  Calling hours will be held Friday from 4-8 PM.  In lieu of flowers donations may be made to Home & Hospice Care of RI 1085 North Main Street, Providence, RI 02904.Uncle died circa,  Sept 2015 at 82 yo & mom 93... Shortly thereafter of cancer ( prostrate,  ovarian & breast respectively ) 

João J. Pina

September 9, 2015/

João  J. Pina, 82 of East Providence passed away Wednesday September 9, 2015 at the Philip Hulitar Inpatient Center.  He was the husband of Ana C. (Gomes) Pina  to whom he was married for 54 years.  Born in Brava, Cape Verde he was the son of the late José  Gualdino and Eugenia 'Clementina' (Gomes) DePina.He was a chef at the Brook Manor Pub in South Attleboro, previously he was a chef in Glen Cove,  New York at D’Place.  He was a member of the East Providence Senior Center, and a communicant of St. Francis Xavier Church and local lodge.In addition to his wife he is survived by two sons Joseph S. Pina of VA, John Pina of CA, one daughter Laura Eugenia Pina of VA, six grandchildren Anna, Josephine, Sean, Tyler, Cameryn, John Julian, and one sister Jovina Silva of Riverside.His funeral will be held on Saturday at 9 AM from the PERRY-MCSTAY FUNERAL HOME 2555 Pawtucket Avenue, East Providence with a Mass of Christian Burial at 10 AM in St. Francis Xavier Church, North Carpenter St., East Providence.  Burial will be in Gate of Heaven Cemetery, ( close to dad ) .  Calling hours will be held Friday from 4-8 PM.  In lieu of flowers donations may be made to Home & Hospice Care of RI 1085 North Main Street, Providence, RI 02904.

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